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Saturday, June 29, 2013

Lewis Hamilton Flies to Silverstone Pole

Photo source: Pirelli Photo Service

Three weeks have past since Sebastian Vettel won the Canadian Grand Prix. The 2013 Formula 1 tour returns to Europe for the coveted British Grand Prix. Since 1987, the permanent home for England's biggest motor race has been set on the property that was formerly a Royal Air Force airfield. Silverstone Circuit holds the many grand prix teams look forward to each year as a home race. Qualifying for the 2013 Formula 1 event, an English driver was able to relish a win on his nation's track.

On a dry track in Q3, Lewis Hamilton posted the fastest time in setting the grid for the British Grand Prix. The Mercedes AMG team driver posted a 1-minute, 29.607-second lap time around Silverstone for pole. Hamilton handed Mercedes AMG there fifth pole in the 2013 Formula 1 season. Proclaiming, “It feels incredible to be on pole” Lewis Hamilton captured his second-career British Grand Prix pole.

It was an overall impressive effort for the Mercedes AMG team in British Grand Prix qualifying when Nico Rosberg scored other front row position. Recording the second-fastest time on Saturday, Rosberg was roughly 0.45 seconds slower than his teammate. Hamilton and Rosberg combined for the third all-Mercedes AMG front row this year.

Setting closely identical times, the Red Bull Racing team drivers will fill the second row of the 2013 British Grand Prix. Sebastian Vettel had a 0.09 second faster lap time to grant the German the edge over teammate Mark Webber. With news coming out earlier this week that Webber will be retiring from Formula 1 to pursue new frontiers in sports car racing, the remaining races will be winding down a after five seasons together.

Qualifying fifth, Paul di Resta fantastic effort with a Force India-Mercedes has been completely tarnished in post-race. Weighing 1.5 kilograms less than the minimum weight capacity, the entry was disqualified. In accordance with Formula 1 series rules, Force India's di Resta will either start from the rear of the grid or from the pit lane. Thanks to a Q3 berth by Adrian Sutil, Force India will have one car placed front to the front for the start of the British Grand Prix.

Photo source: Pirelli Photo Service

With Paul di Resta's time being disallowed, Daniel Ricciardo of Scuderia Toro Rosso has been promoted to fifth on the starting grid. In seventh and eighth place, the Lotus F1 Team appears to be losing pace with front-running contenders. Romain Grosjean was marginally faster than his more veteran teammate Kimi Raikkonen.

Striking to see in qualifying for the 2013 British Grand Prix is the faltering of Ferrari. Fernando Alonso entered the Q3 top-ten but had a difficult time finding a fast lap at Silverstone. Qualifying ninth, Alonso summed up the time trial session saying, "We can consider this the worst Saturday of the season so far, having never finished so far down, but now we must react immediately to try and return to the form we showed at the start of the year.". The second Ferrari of Felipe Massa settled with an 11th place position as the Brazilian driver pointed to a shortage of track time as a contributing factor to his Ferrari's lack of pace.

The 52-lap British Grand Prix at Silverstone is set to start at 1 PM local time (8 AM Eastern time) on Sunday. The weather forecast calls for a dry race.